Pedrosa bids farewell to MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa bid an emotional farewell to MotoGP after 13 seasons in the premier class, bowing out by matching his best result of the year at Valencia and coming home fifth in Sunday’s race. Surrounded by friends and family for his MotoGP swansong where he was officially inducted as a MotoGP legend, Pedrosa admitted that Sunday’s conditions meant that he wasn’t able to give it his all.
“I was a little emotional before the race, but afterwards when all my family and friends were in tears I was OK! When I came in and saw the box full of people it was a nice moment, but it was before the race I felt it most, when I met some old friends wishing me luck and the sadness of some fans who weren’t going to have that moment again.
“But I was OK afterwards because I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do. The conditions were so bad that it was so easy to crash, because it felt like I wasn’t touching the ground, just floating on top of the water. I couldn’t give everything I wanted to in the last race because I was just trying not to crash.”
Pedrosa won 54 races during his Grand Prix career and sits equal seventh in the list of all-time winners with 500 GP legend Mick Doohan. While Pedrosa’s racing career may have come to an end, he will maintain a presence in the series as KTM’s new official test rider. The 33-year-old Spaniard brings a wealth of experience to the Austrian squad having spent his entire MotoGP career onboard the Repsol Honda. Pedrosa’s KTM testing debut was expected to be next week in Jerez, but MCN understands that it will now be later in the year once his Honda contract has expired.
O ‘In the race it felt like I was just floating on top of the water’